Are you thinking about starting a blog, but have never quite found the motivation to start? Starting your first blog can be daunting, especially if it’s unlike anything you’ve done before and you’re totally new to the blogging world. Here is a list of our 12 blog tips that you need to know before starting a blog!
There are lots of online platforms available – some free, some not – for you to start your blog on. Make sure that you pick one that suits you, your web knowledge and your content. Choosing the wrong platform can lead to some frustration that may put you off from sticking to your blog, so it’s important to choose one that will help your blog to grow.
Platforms such as Tumblr, WordPress, Blogger and Medium are free and easy to use for beginners. It’s always worth weighing up the pros and cons of each platform before choosing which one to start your blog on.
Your blog name, and web domain, is something that you will come to be known by as your blog grows. Make sure that it positively reflects you and what your blog is about, whilst being short and punchy enough to be memorable!
It’s always best to have a topic area as a focus for your blog, as this will help you to establish a reader base. Make sure that this is something you love, that you are truly interested in, and that you can see yourself dedicating a lot of time to.
Think about the kind of articles you want to write, and what kind of theme this best fits in. It could be a little more general, such as a personal or lifestyle blog, allowing for a bit more scope with what you want to write about. You could also choose a specific topic, such as fashion, travel, book reviews or music – as long as you’re passionate enough to keep writing about it, make it your focus!
Using original photos that you take yourself can bring a lot of your own personality into your blog posts, whilst making even the more common topics a bit more unique! This is one of the blog tips that will make your blog stand out.
Even if you don’t want to invest in an expensive camera yet, phone cameras can take clear and detailed images, and learning how to edit them with apps on your phone can make a plain photo into something much more professional.
Are your photographs the highlight of your blog? Do you have video content, or do you want the focus to be on your words?
There is a wide range of both free and paid for blog layouts available on all platforms that can show off different aspects of your blog. Choose one that showcases your content.
Don’t be afraid when writing your content. Be bold, and let your passion, creativity and personality shine through in your writing.
If your writing holds back too much, or is stiff and lifeless, then it may not attract your readers to keep coming back to read more of your content. Be fearless.
No matter what you choose to write about, you are still individual – and it’s important to highlight that fact on your blog!
Don’t try to copy other blogs that you admire. Take inspiration from them, definitely – but they are popular because they embrace their personality and individuality. Embrace yourself and your own ideas.
One of the blog tips we recommend for your blog to be successful is to keep your content well-informed, accurate and interesting.
When you start writing about a new topic, it’s always a good idea to first do some research into what else has already been written about this topic. What else can you say that makes your content individual and interesting?
Don’t be afraid to advertise yourself. There are a lot of social media options available to promote your articles and build your readership.
Make a facebook, twitter, Instagram and pinterest page that relates to the content posted on your blog. Create a Linkedin profile and connect with other bloggers in order to build a professional network.
One of the most useful blog tips is to never forget to blog regularly! It’s easy to lose readers if you are not regularly updating your blog with new content. If they keep coming back to find nothing new, they may stop checking altogether.
If you struggle to motivate yourself, consider creating a schedule of times and days that you want to publish content. Having a more rigid schedule may help your readers to know when you check your blog for new posts, especially when you’re just starting out.
It’s fine to find inspiration from other bloggers or anywhere else! Especially when you’re feeling stuck, it can be really helpful to read through some other blogs, search Pinterest and Instagram to be inspired by new ideas.
However, if you want to quote someone else, or use a blog post idea, it’s important that you don’t plagiarise and that you link back to the relevant post. You may actually find that linking to other people’s blogs and networking in this way helps you to establish a blogging network, and that by positively promoting other people, that others may start to promote you too.
You may not be as excited about this part as you are about creating a blog about content that you love, but these editorial parts of starting your own blog are really important to get right.
Proofreading and editing will improve the quality of your content and ensure that it is exciting to read, with no mistakes or rant-y sections that don’t make sense.
SEO, or search engine optimisation, is important to learn about if you want your blog to get good exposure on search engines such as google. Getting this right can bring a lot of extra traffic to your blog posts, so it’s worth spending a bit of time learning about it!
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